"Will!" Dustin threw his hands in the air in surprise. "Hey, buddy! How'd you get outta the house?"
Steve was standing and took a deep breath when he saw the last member of the party in the doorway. He pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger and exhaled again. Things were going to be fine, it was alright. He just had one psychic, a formerly possessed kid, three little shits, and a girl whose brother beat the shit out of him the night before. Oh, and also none of them were even supposed to be anywhere near the house under strict orders of the Police Chief who probably had about five different guns he could use to shoot Steven when he finds out about this.
"Mom's working a double," Will said happily as he shrugged off his coat. "And Jonathan's off with Nancy, so he told me I could do whatever. I got Lucas's message on the walkie-talkie that there's a party at El's, so I figured I'd come on over!"
He walked in and was greeted with a high five from Dustin, a thumbs up from Lucas, and a short bro hug from Mike. He glanced up at Steve and smiled warily before glancing over at his friends. "So, uh, are we gonna watch movies or what?"
Steve wanted to kick them all out, make them all go away, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. They all seemed so happy, reunited now after the hell they'd gone through. It was a miracle one of the kids weren't dead, especially Will and Eleven, who fought harder than anyone.
"Yeah, yeah, go press play," Steve said with a huff as he sat back down on the floor. Will sat next to Steve and Lucas shifted over to Max. Great, now the older teen had to watch out for those two little shits while also watching the other little shits above him on the couch. But, as he glanced behind him to check on Mike and El, he saw that the girl was just resting her head innocently on Mike's shoulder. And, as he turned forward, Max was doing the same on Lucas's shoulder. The poor kids were probably all still exhausted.
When the first movie was over, Steve got up and went to refill the popcorn bowl. "Start the next one without me and I'll kick your ass," he warned the kids as he marched off to the kitchen, but a smile on his lips gave away the fact that he was softening up and didn't really mean it. As the popcorn was popping in the microwave, Dustin came over and stood by him. The boy glanced at Steve and copied the way he was leaning on the counter, his arms folded and one leg crossed in front of the other at the ankle. Steve noticed this and looked at Dustin with a raised eyebrow, trying to hide the fact that he was flattered.
"Hey, uh, can I ask you a question?" Dustin asked, glancing at the ground.
"Sure," Steve shrugged indifferently.
"Cool, thanks, I uh. Well you know, I'm a little nervous. The, uh. The Snow Ball is coming up," Dustin's face turned red and he coughed. "You know, the dance."
Steve gave him a look. "What, you trying to ask me out?" He asked with a chuckle and was amused when Dustin's face turned even redder.
"What? No! Come on!" the boy cried. "I just wanted to know, well. You know. How you do it?"
"How I do what?"
"Get dates."
Oh. Now Steve felt almost bad for that joke at the kid's expense. "You know, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not doing well in the romance department," Steve replied dryly with a hint of regret. But, Dustin just shrugged.
"Yeah right now, but you're Steve Harrington! You'll get another date soon enough!" Steve looked over at him, a smile on his lips. Goddamn that kid, stroking his ego and building him up. This was going to make it harder for him to say no in the future.
"Alright," he said, flattered, "Well, girls are a tricky bunch, you know? Sometimes they're hot and sometimes they're cold. They're like… the sky." Shit, he was really bad at the whole explaining thing. He was more of a doer rather than a teller.
"The sky?"
"Yeah, you know. Uh, like how the sun is hot and then it goes down and the moon is cold."
"Ohhhh!"
Thank God the kid thought the world of him. "Anyway, you just have to go for it, you know? Just go right up to them and offer your hand and be like, 'hey, I know you want to dance with me. Let's go.' Girls dig confidence."
"Confidence got it. Okay, you think that'll get me a date?"
"It'll at least get you a dance." The microwave dinged and Steve took the bag out.
"A kiss?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself," he warned with a laugh as he poured the popcorn into the bowl.
"Got it. Hey, thanks, man."
Steve glanced over and smiled. He reached his hand out to touch Dustin's curly hair and ruffled it kindly like a big brother would. "Anything for you kid."
He was halfway back to the couch when there was a knock on the door. "What, did you invite every kid in the whole goddamn town over here?" He asked the kids, but they all just shrugged. They had no idea who could be at the door now-they were all accounted for.
Steve went to the window first, though he didn't know how he'd react if a demodog or man in a lab coat was standing there. He'd probably just grab his bat and tell them to get out and hope that worked because damn was he tired. How was it that watching movies got him this exhausted? Or maybe it was the stress.
But, what was standing on the doorstep was worse than a demodog or scary lab coat man. Steve had half a mind to take that nailed bat to himself or run off into the woods. But, the kids were looking at him curiously and another knock pounded on the door and he knew he had no way out of this.
So, he pulled open the door and let Jonathan and Nancy inside.
The gang's all here! :') Anyway, hope you guys are still enjoying, THANK YOU for all the kind and wonderful reviews and comments. It's so appreciated! I think next chapter will be my last for this story unless it gets to be too long, then I'll split it up. Thanks again so much!